Since I elected to be open for any exchange, including international, that day I was pleased to find out the receiver of my Secret Santa gift is from Sweden. Though I was less pleased when I realized what I wanted to send was likely going to cost me $25-30 just in postage alone. Whomp-whomp.
Don't lie. You totally just said that in an Arnold Schwarzenegger voice. I know it!! Too bad he's Austrian and my giftee is Swiss - that gif was almost 100% on point. Heh.
Anyway! My giftee is a Swiss man in his 50s, married with three teen kids, is a web developer of some sort, and is into Marvel comic characters, Walking Dead, and musical choices such as Michael Buble and Nat King Cole.
Me:
I connect with basically none of this. Which to be fair, I knew would be part of the challenge (and fun) of doing a Reddit swap. I fully expected my partner to be into Sci-fi, super hero, science type stuff that I know NOTHING about. So the challenge of this Secret Santa for me was always to find some common grounds between myself and them ... and then gift accordingly.
Oh! Also of note, my giftee lost his eye awhile back due to health issues, and is currently dealing with a cancer diagnosis. This will become more relevant later.
With my challenge fully in hand, my job as an internet stalker commenced. Reddit assisted somewhat in this by allowing me access to my giftee's profile (portions which in other instances are left hidden on the site). Reviewing this information allowed me limited access to my giftee's Facebook and Twitter pages. Between those bits, and the general information provided via the Secret Santa survey itself, I started to formulate some ideas. Most of which stemmed from a post in one of his profiles where Al Franken was compared to Dustin from Stranger things:
Well ... thanks for the Minnesota inspiration, giftee! Times two, in fact!! (I bet he didn't even realize the Minnesota connection to Dustin in that comparison, BTW). Minnesota ... Minnesota ... how do I find this guy a fun gift that isn't just typical tourist tripe?
Well, first off, I knew one thing I wanted to do right away. I figured, if he's even A LITTLE bit of a Stranger Things fan, at least that I can relate to. Plus, he referenced a famous Swedish physicist in his "celebrities I like" question slot, and he noted he personally supports endowments to various charities ... so adding this all together, I decided to take a chance and purchase an authentic Science Museum of Minnesota "Thunder Lizard" t-shirt.
This was somewhat of a win/win, as it finally broke me after a year of procrastinating to buy myself a thunder lizard hoodie as well. I figured that since proceeds in 2017 helped fund a van purchase for traveling science education, I could spare the $30 for my own hoodie and contribute to the cause.
Gift portion A - check. Thunder Lizard T:
Knowing how extra I am, you can bet that I didn't just want to send a t-shirt and be done with this thing. Once I knew I wanted to do the thunder lizard shirt, more brainstorming about unique Minnesota things commenced.
I think the purple in the shirt may have swayed me just at tad into this connection.
Duh - Paisley Park is practically within walking distance of my house. Since my giftee is into jazzier singers, and most of Prince's later works were in that spectrum, why not include something Prince related?!
Gift portion B - check. My very own hot glued combo of two Christmas ornaments from Patina:
The last thing I wanted to send ... I have to admit, I didn't want my giftee to take it the wrong way. But knowing a sense of humor can work wonders on someone with medical setbacks, I decided to use a friend of mine as an example and followed her lead. Since she also had severe eye issues and cancer, and I knew she had a great sense of humor about being a pirate and wearing an eye patch, I decided to select my giftee a novelty eyepatch ... you know, for the days he might be feeling a little Walking Dead-ish:
Gift portion C - check. I think that means I'm done!
Net result - someone in Sweden is about to get a whole lotta Minnesota inspired awesomeness. Hopefully the recipient agrees.
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